Free Advice: Avoid parts of I-285 this weekend (again!)

Damage from the thick coat of ice in January, 2011, is one reason I-285 needs resurfacing now.

DUNWOODY, Ga. -- Here's where Georgia DOT crews have shut down I-285 this weekend, from 9:00 p.m. Oct. 12 until 5:00 a.m. Oct. 15, as part of the on-gong resurfacing project:

* I-285 westbound, from Ashford-Dunwoody in Dunwoody, west to the Long Island Drive bridge in Sandy Springs, a distance of 3.2 miles (three outside lanes are closed, meaning traffic will back up, at times, toward Peachtree Industrial Highway and Buford Highway)

* Some of the ramps at the northside interchange of I-285 and I-75, including the ramp from U.S. 41 onto I-75 northbound, and the ramp from I-75 southbound onto I-285 eastbound.

* The eastbound on-ramp from New Northside Drive onto I-285

* The westbound on-ramp and off-ramp at Riverside Drive

Georgia DOT is spending $56 Million in a year-long project to resurface and repair a ten-mile stretch of I-285, from Ashford-Dunwoody Road in DeKalb County, west and south to Paces Ferry Road in Cobb County.

It is the first, major maintenance project on I-285 since 1994-1995.

According to the DOT, the I-285 resurfacing became even more of a priority partly because of the bad weather of January, 2011, when two to three inches of ice coated the interstates, highways and streets of north Georgia. The ice, and the damage from scraping the ice from the asphalt, damaged I-285 even more than the other roadways because I-285 was already in bad need of resurfacing.

High traffic volume has also contributed to the need for resurfacing. An average of 250,000 vehicles a day use I-285.

Jill Goldberg of the DOT told 11Alive News Friday that there will probably be only one more weekend of resurfacing work on I-285, the weekend of Oct. 26 - Oct. 29, until after winter. DOT expects to finish the project in August, 2013.